Two relevant articles for all of us who are actually interested in evidence. Goerg is a Biblical historicitist, his argument is the standard. Note that it is not archaeological of nature:
Manfred Görg "Exodus" The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Ed. Donald B. Redford. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. Macquarie University. 20 April 2007 http://www.oxford-ancientegypt.com/entry?entry=t176.e0229
Exodus. The biblical traditions concerning the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt are mostly preserved in the second book of the Hebrew scriptures. It recounts the memories of many events, from a time of slavery and oppression in Lower Egypt to the escape back to the homeland, after wandering for forty years in the Sinai Peninsula, under the guidance of a divinely appointed leader, Moses. Beginning with some introductory notes about the growth of the people of Israel in Egypt, the story leads to the appearance of the hero with an extraordinary past. He had been born a Hebrew, set adrift in a basket on the Nile in an effort to save him from death, and was found by an Egyptian princess who adopted him; Moses then grew up at the pharaonic court. As a young man, Moses killed an Egyptian overseer who was abusing Hebrew slaves and fled into the desert, where he learned of his own Hebrew heritage. There, he met his God, who revealed himself and chose Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt.
Moses then petitions the pharaoh, his stepbrother, to free the Israelites, but the request is denied. Moses warns the pharaoh about God's will on the matter, and soon a series of plagues descends on the Egyptians, with the last being the death of first-born sons. When the pharoah's son dies, he pretends to release the Israelites but sends his army after them. The army, is however, soon destroyed by a spectacular miracle, drowning in the Red Sea. Then for forty years, the wandering people are fed by divine provisions and at Mount Sinai, God gives Moses the Ten Commandments—the basic laws of Judaism. With that accomplished, the new generations lose their divinely inspired leader and finally enter the promised land of Canaan.
Traditional and fundamental exegeses seek interpretation of these texts primarily for their historical value. The canonical approach should not be confused with a treatment of the texts as literary works that have their own specific character and development. Biblical texts are written sources which may also be studied using the methodogical criteria of philological and linguistic research.
The
Book of Exodus, as a text, has been the subject of many studies concerning its authorship. Longstanding critical analysis of the Hebrew grammar, vocabulary, and references has shown that there are the following: passages of Deuteronomistic and priestly origin from the Babylonian Exile and after the Exile, combined with some possibly pre-Exile material. The Exilic versions contain illustrations of the ten miraculous plagues and the spectacular crossing of the Red Sea. The central idea refers to the God of Israel dominating over foreign enemies and their gods, protecting his chosen people. The several stations of the escape route reflect an actual knowledge of the geography of the eastern Nile Delta, including names preserved in memory, such as Ramesses (Piramesse, the capital of the Ramessid kings), Pithom (
Ex. 1.11), and possibly Pihachirot, which refers to the Delta area with the branches of the Nile. The tendency of these stories is to be seen as a view of the Babylonian Exile—so that the liberation from that Exile gains the character of a “second exodus,” thus fulfilling the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah. Therefore, most of the
Exodus account has a relatively late origin. Some possible pre-Exilic allusions to
Exodus events offer different information from the relatively exhaustive illustrations of the priestly sources. Generally, they seem to present some genuine perspective within the genre of their specific context. So the “Song of Miriam” (
Ex. 15.21), a hymn that possibly dates from dynastic times, celebrates the dominating God of Israel in mythological terms that may have origins from that period in the kingdom of Judah. The variants of the formula of God's leading Israel from Egypt were created not earlier than in the period of the two Hebrew kingdoms—Judah and Israel. The pre-Exile stratum of the
Exodus tradition seems to have been written with criticism for the kingdoms of Judah and Israel concerning their problematic relations with Egypt.
The so-called Israel Stela from the fifth year of the reign of Merenptah, together with some reliefs from the temple of Karnak do not give sufficient information about details of an Exodus, because they seem to relate only to people living in the Palestine area. However, numerous textual indications from Egypt refer to the movements of bedouins—the Shasou (Eg.,
�*ʒsw) in the southern Palestine region and in the Sinai Peninsula—and show some affinity to the biblical
Exodus memories. Of great importance is the engraved illustration of the Shasou bedouins on their deportation to Egypt by Sety I, shown at the northern end of the great columned hall in the temple of Karnak. Furthermore, there were known Semitic laborers and workers in Egypt, as attested under the name “Aperu” (Eg.,
ʿprw). So the
Exodus population may have consisted of Shasou and Aperu groups in not just one leave-taking but in several similar events. The memory of one or more such events may further be connected with persons of Semitic origin who entered upon a special career in Egypt. Thus representatives in politics, like the chancellor Beja or the court functionary Ramessesemperre under the Ramessids, have some features comparable to the biblical Moses, but it is not possible to identify them with the biblical leader and lawgiver. From the historical standpoint, there exists a serious possibility that several kinds of Exodus events happened both before and after the turn of the twelfth century bce, especially with flight and repulsions. The routes of such variants may be the so-called Way of Horus or an uncontrolled way, which crossed the swampy area at Egypt's eastern border, to the south of the Ballah Sea (Heb.,
yam suph? = Eg.,
pʒ ṯwf?) into the southern parts of the Sinai.
An Egyptian view of the Exodus seems to be preserved in a story told by the Greco-Egyptian historian Manetho and referred to by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus. There, the Exodus appeared as a repulsion of lepers under the lead of a certain Osarsiph (later named Moses), who taught contrary to Egyptian customs. Behind this story, the Egyptian experience with the monotheistic Amarna religion has been proposed; this view has even been stressed as the background to the biblical
Exodus. So the Egyptian version should reflect an antagonism toward monotheism. The view critical to monotheism may relate to Egypt's longstanding animosity toward peoples from Near Eastern countries, such as the victorious Hyksos dynasty that ruled Egypt from its Nile Delta capital. The historical conquests by foreigners in the Delta can be seen as the fundamental background for all varieties of the Exodus idea in Egypt and perhaps in Israel/Judah.
The liturgy of the Jewish Passover (Pesach) celebrates the victorious God, who saved his people. Possibly the Hebrew term
paesaḥ derives from the Egyptian
pʒ sḫw, “the slaying [by God],” for the victory over his enemies and the protection of his Chosen People.
